Alpnachstad Switzerland - For 125 years the Swiss Pilatusbahn, the world's steepest cogwheel railway, has stressed the nerves of their guests.
 
Especially along the donkey wall which is not made for people with vertigo.
 
It jerks and twitches, the rocking car gently vibrates the windows.
 
Tooth for tooth the rail car bites up the mountain.
 
With a maximum of twelve kilometers an hour it climbs slowly towards the summit.
 
Through the open windows tourists view pines, streams, and meadows.
 
Near Aemsigen Chamois can be seen and looking over their shoulders into the valley below Lake Lucerne flashes in the sun.
 
Up to the mountain station is another 600 meters.
 
And yes, do not worry, the adrenaline is still flowing.
 
125-years-ago, on 4 Jun 1889, the line was opened.
 
With a gradient of up to 48 percent the cog railway, at that time, was the steepest in the world, it still is today.
 
The 4.6 kilometer journey takes you from Alpnachstad to Pilatus Kulm mountain station in 2,070 meters.
 
It does not take much imagination, to guess at how much trouble the construction must have been.
 
The entire route was built of cobblestones.
 
600 workers toiled 400 days to complete the route, driving one and a half meter long anchor bolts into the rock to hold rail and racks
 
Two large cogwheel gears mounted under each car pull it up.
 
Today the track exudes a wonderful nostalgia.
 
While many peaks in Switzerland are connected by modern cable cars, on the Pilatusbahn you feel as if you were in a Viennese coffee house, with wood-paneled walls on the cabins.
 
Queen Victoria of England would have liked to ride this train.
 
The Queen visited Pilate in 1868 but had to ride a mule like other climbers at that time.
 
There would have been around 3,000 visitors at that time a year.
 
Twelve Drivers on a Route
 
Tourism was the reason for implementing plans for a rack railway.
 
The Queen, incidentally, spent several days at the summit hotel "Bellevue", which was later replaced.
 
Today, the prestigious "Hotel Pilatus-Kulm", established in 1890, lies near the summit.
 
"It is beautiful to see the sunset up there," says Bruno Zimmermann, one of twelve drivers.
 
This 67-year-old driver has had no boring tours.
 
"It's always nice, always different", he says.
 
Zimmermann sits in the cab on a narrow board and raves about days that begin overcast until he pushes through the clouds to a sunny end at the summit.
 
He remembers encounters with marmots and mountain jackdaws.
 
Once a buck stood on the tracks but reluctantly stepped to the side, just enough that the rail car just missed him.
 
"That buck was pretty stubborn."
 
The spectacle has been repeated a few more times since.
 
Anonymous Author

OKthePK Joint Bar Editor:  Translation by Google but with some additional guesswork.